A systems approach to evaluating the air quality co-benefits of US carbon policies

Because human activities emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) and conventional air pollutants from common sources, policy designed to reduce GHGs can have co-benefits for air quality that may offset some or all of the near-term costs of GHG mitigation. We present a systems approach to quantify air quality c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature climate change 2014-10, Vol.4 (10), p.917-923
Main Authors: Thompson, Tammy M., Rausch, Sebastian, Saari, Rebecca K., Selin, Noelle E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
119/118
704/106/35/824
704/172/169/824
704/844/2175
706/689/159
Air pollution
Air quality
Carbon
Climate Change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Emissions trading
Environment
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice
Greenhouse gases
Particulate matter
Pollutants
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Summary:Because human activities emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) and conventional air pollutants from common sources, policy designed to reduce GHGs can have co-benefits for air quality that may offset some or all of the near-term costs of GHG mitigation. We present a systems approach to quantify air quality co-benefits of US policies to reduce GHG (carbon) emissions. We assess health-related benefits from reduced ozone and particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) by linking three advanced models, representing the full pathway from policy to pollutant damages. We also examine the sensitivity of co-benefits to key policy-relevant sources of uncertainty and variability. We find that monetized human health benefits associated with air quality improvements can offset 26–1,050% of the cost of US carbon policies. More flexible policies that minimize costs, such as cap-and-trade standards, have larger net co-benefits than policies that target specific sectors (electricity and transportation). Although air quality co-benefits can be comparable to policy costs for present-day air quality and near-term US carbon policies, potential co-benefits rapidly diminish as carbon policies become more stringent. The near-term costs of greenhouse-gas emissions reduction may be offset by the air-quality co-benefits of mitigation policies. Now research estimates the monetary value of the human health benefits from air-quality improvements due to US carbon abatement policies, and finds that the benefits can offset 26–1,050% of the cost of mitigation policies.
ISSN:1758-678X
1758-6798
DOI:10.1038/nclimate2342